Serpentine Idler and Tensioner pulley lifespan (1 Viewer)

[bloc]

Hello all,

Started noticing an intermittent faint squeal on cold start and will be throwing a new belt on the engine shortly since I don't know how many miles are on it. 123k miles on the chassis.. belt looks great, but I'm guessing has stretched quite a bit.

Between the fan support bearing and two pullies being a pretty significant chunk of change, I'm wondering how much life I can expect (roughly) out of the two smaller ones, given their pretty simple job.

Has anyone actually had either of these go bad?

thanks

 

[LWA55DAL]

I replaced the idler pulleys and belt tensioner on my ‘11 at 130k when I did the water pump. The water pump did not fail but figured I’d go ahead and do it before it did. It’s a very easy job to do the idlers and tensioner when you have it all torn down.

My experience is the idlers start to make noise around 120k or so.

 

[gomez268]

Hello all,

Started noticing an intermittent faint squeal on cold start and will be throwing a new belt on the engine shortly since I don't know how many miles are on it. 123k miles on the chassis.. belt looks great, but I'm guessing has stretched quite a bit.

Between the fan support bearing and two pullies being a pretty significant chunk of change, I'm wondering how much life I can expect (roughly) out of the two smaller ones, given their pretty simple job.

Has anyone actually had either of these go bad?

thanks

I had my belt tensioner go bad at 165k, took out the radiator when the belt snapped. No warning, no sound, or squeal. Didn't even know it went bad. Night before tried to turning into my drive way and I had no power steering. Next day took it to the dealership where they revealed the damage. $2,200 later and my truck was on the road again.

For Peace of mind I would just go ahead and replace it.

 

[bloc]

Good point.

I did the belt and both are perfectly smooth.. but I’ll order them for my next oil change.

 

[dryrunner]

Had to replace my squealing tensioner pulley at about 35k. Dealer did it, and covered it after some heated debate. Apparently pulleys are not covered in the Toyota Certified warranty, nor the regular warranty. After talking to both warranty departments, yes, there are two, one of them relented. Dealer tech rep said he hadn't seen that being covered before. So maybe I got lucky by being a squeaky wheel. But I think it is due to a lot of dust getting into the non sealed bearings. I'm usually the last vehicle on off road trips as I have the GOPRO. Tundra forums have this issue as well.

 

[bloc]

The idler was definitely a sealed bearing.. rubber seal actually. I could see it clearly. I'd be very surprised if they used a non-sealed bearing on the tensioner pulley.. though I couldn't get eyes on it yet to tell for sure.